If you have overgrown evergreens, this month is the best time for major pruning.
If you have crape myrtles, now is the best time for proper routine pruning.
Evergreen Pruning
As landscapes mature, it is typical for plant material to outgrow the intended space.
Some of the biggest offenders are hollies and boxwoods. It is common to find hollies growing into eves and boxwoods crowding sidewalks. The tendency is to plant shrubs in spaces they will not fit when they reach their mature size.
But, who reads a plant label?
And, if you did read the label you were thinking: “Surely this pretty little holly will never cover up the window.”
Then, a few short seasons later, you find yourself struggling to keep the shrub contained in the space you intended.
Or, possibly you have done a great job of keeping them sheared to fit the space, but they no longer have the natural shape you fell in love with.
What do you do? Tear them out and start over?
Dwarf Burford Holly is commonly used as a foundation planting. If your row of holly have become overgrown late winter through early spring is the best time to reduce their size with major pruning.
Nellie Stevens Holly often look best when they are allowed to retain their natural shape. If your Nellies have become overgrown, or have lost their natural beauty from repeated shearing, mid-February through March is the time to regain their natural shape with major pruning.
I have a better solution - March is your opportunity to do major pruning on most broadleaf evergreens.
The broadleaf evergreen, any plant with leaves year-round, the list includes aucuba, camellia, boxwood, cherry laurel, elaeagnus, holly, mahonia, photinia, just to name a few.
Heavy pruning in the spring before new growth starts allows you the opportunity to regain the shape you intended for the plant.
Twice over the 20 years, since it was planted, I have heavily pruned a large Nellie Stevens Holly on one corner of my house. And, as I do every time, I take a broadleaf evergreen back to no leaves and only major branches, I keep asking myself,
“What if this holly doesn’t re-leaf?”
“Am I ruining a 20-year-old Nellie?”
But, once again the shrub responded just like it should, and within in one growing season, it returned to its natural beauty.
Nellie Stevens Holly
This is the same holly that was pruned back to only branches a couple of years ago.
Take time this week to evaluate your broadleaf evergreen shrubs.
Are they overgrown?
Or, do they have winter damage that needs to be removed?
Or, do they just need to be reshaped?
If so, now is the time to remove dead branches, reshape, and regain control of overgrown shrubs.
March is your best window of opportunity each year for the major pruning of broadleaf evergreens.
If you have boxwood taking over a sidewalk, mid-February through March is the best time to reclaim the sidewalk. You can trim them aggressively and they will recover during the growing season.
Nellie R Stevens Holly is a favorite foundation plant. With a mature size of 15’ tall and 10’ wide they quickly loose their natural beauty with regular sheering in an attempt to make them fit the landscape. Now is the best time to reduce the size and return them to their appearance.
BEFORE: If you have large hollies with damage from last winter, can they be saved or should they be replaced?
AFTER: As long as the evergreen has some green leaves you can remove the dead branches and reshape the plant. If the plant has a healthy root system, you will be surprised at how quickly it regains a good shape.
Why are so many crape myrtles cut back to 4-5’ every year?
Three Reasons for Bad Crape Myrtle Pruning
1. It is simply what everyone does to their crape myrtles in the spring. Have you ever wondered if it is the best practice? It pains me to see so many beautiful crapes cut back to ugly stubs every spring. This practice ruins the natural form of the plant. Southern Living termed the practice as “Crape Murder” decades ago, yet it continues as a common practice.
2. The wrong variety was selected for the location and pruning is needed to control the size. Varieties include large tree types that grow 20’ or larger, medium varieties 12-18’, 6-12’ small varieties, and dwarf varieties. When you select the right size for your planting area and are not forced to prune heavily to contain the plant, you will find you will have a healthier plant resulting in less disease and more blooms.
3. They believe the myth that crape myrtles bloom more if they are severely pruned every year. Flowers are produced on new growth every year even if they are not pruned. Without heavy pruning, you will have more branch area resulting in more summer blooms.
Crape Murder destroys the natural beauty of the plant. Mature crape myrtles have wonderful smooth and molten bark with graceful shapes. You will never experience this quality if you murder them every spring.
Crape myrtles in open areas should be allowed to grow to the natural shape as small trees and not pruned to 5’ every year.
When you allow crape myrtle to grow to their natural shape and size you gain the benefit of their attractive exfoliating bark.
Crape myrtles are one of the longest-blooming plants in our region, have attractive branching and bark, and provide great fall color.
Crape myrtles deserve a place in our landscape, planted in a location that allows them to grow into large shrubs or small trees they were intended to.
Lorne Hall
Hall | Stewart Lawn + Landscape
(405)367-3873
Crape Myrtle Pruning
Crape myrtle pruning is a regular topic for Hall | Stewart at this time of year. Sometimes we feel like we are a broken record on the subject and it’s time to move on, but we just can’t.
The over-pruning, the destruction of a wonderfully structured plant, never seems to stop. So, we will keep promoting the proper pruning and care of crape myrtles.
We understand that most crape myrtles require some pruning in late winter to early spring, but way too often crape myrtles are trimmed incorrectly and too severely.
There are cases where the crape myrtle variety is the wrong one for the location and the only choice is to dramatically prune. But, most crape myrtles are over-pruned for no reason.
Crape myrtles create a great allee along streets when grown to their natural size.
Great pruning… this Crape Myrtle didn’t fall victim to Crape Murder.
How should crape myrtles be pruned?
Best Pruning Tips
1. Know what your goal is before you start. You can always prune more, but once you have pruned, you can never prune less.
2. Remove last summer’s seed pods from the ends of the branches with hand pruners.
3. Remove all the smaller branches growing toward the center of the plant. This will allow more air and light to reach the center of the plant which will increase blooms and reduce disease.
4. Make cuts back at the main branch and don’t leave stubs.
5. Remove any unwanted branches from the base of large shrub or tree from varieties. Typically 5-7 trunks, free of any branches for the first quarter or third of the plant results in an attractive landscape plant.
